


Day of Departure

by nuomyi



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: AU in which they meet because Gon is KIllua's target of assassination, Gen, M/M, and then they become friends that's it that's whole story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27151393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuomyi/pseuds/nuomyi
Summary: It's in that moment in which Killua realizes that everything he's ever known isn't a lot, because Gon is staring at him with wide, curious eyes like they've seen across horizons and beyond the sunrise, but he’s never seen an assassin up close before. His expression lacks fear, and that’s extremely unnerving."So cool!" Gon says, as if Killua didn't just make a halfhearted attempt on his life. "Can you show me that again?"(The passenger car is empty. He could do it again.)
Relationships: Gon Freecs & Killua Zoldyck, Gon Freecs/Killua Zoldyck
Comments: 6
Kudos: 77





	Day of Departure

To err is human, Killua tells himself, but to hesitate on the job is unforgivable, and to befriend the very target you're supposed to take the life of goes against everything he's ever known.

It's in that moment in which he realizes that everything he's ever known isn't a lot, because Gon is staring at him with wide, curious eyes like they've seen across horizons and beyond the sunrise, but he’s never seen an assassin up close before. His expression lacks fear, and that’s extremely unnerving.

"So cool!" Gon says, as if Killua didn't just make a halfhearted attempt on his life. "Can you show me that again?"

(The passenger car is empty. He could do it again.)

Killua doesn’t usually ask questions on the job, but he genuinely wonders why anyone would want this kid dead. He doesn’t seem to have a shred of self-preservation instinct, happily introducing himself to the person beside him who just so happens to be there because he’s supposed to kill him. Only he hasn’t done it, and he can’t bring himself to do so.

Is it because of those innocuous words, laced with genuine and fearless excitement, that makes him falter? Those words feed the sliver of guilt that stops him short for a brief moment, and it bleeds into the infectious curiosity that emanates from the other. Gon is looking at him, starry-eyed and foolish and Killua has already made up his mind before he even realizes it himself.

“Sure,” he says easily, throwing away everything he’s ever known and hated in a single breath. He’s been looking for an excuse to do so for ages, anyway. He calls his family to disown them first before they can disown him. The train pulls up into the Yorknew city station, and he has never felt so carefree in his life.

x

Meeting Killua, Gon decides then and there, is the best decision he's ever made.

For one, he's his first friend since he left Whale Island seeking work, and what a coincidence that they're the same age! Even so, Killua is already loads ahead of him in literally everything, which is super unfair but that just means Gon needs to run faster to catch up. Killua doesn't seem to want to teach him anything – so stingy – but that's fine too because Gon learns best by imitation. 

Downtown on the mainland is big and foreign and the street lights are brighter than the stars so Gon’s sense of direction is all out of whack. Much to his dismay, the smell of home has long since faded on his clothes, and his hair feels strange and frizzy, kind of like he’s turning into a foxbear. (KIllua says it’s because of the humidity, and not that he’s secretly a were-foxbear.) The air tastes odd, and the clouds in the sky are weirdly shaped, because the wind patterns are different here among narrow roads and bustling crowds.

...Or at least that’s what Killua tells him, because Gon has never stopped to think about it long enough to put a name to things that don’t really need it; it’s all second nature to him. Killua certainly knows a lot!

Dad is right though, Gon thinks, as he bumbles excitedly down the roads of Yorknew City with a new friend in tow. The city is impressive and new and even though homesickness lingers on the tip of his tongue, he doesn’t regret dropping everything to venture into a new world.

“Got any family in Yorknew?” Killua asks, because Gon is staring fixedly at job postings on a discarded newspaper, and he’s kind of struggling to read the more formal city dialect.

“What’s this word…? Huh? What? No, not really,” Gon says.

“You’ve got money to stay at a hotel or something?”

“Nope!” he says cheerfully, and he points to the crumpled newspaper in his hands. “I’m gonna find a job!”

x

That makes two of them, Killua supposes, because he pretty much ran away from home on a whim and it’s not like he can ask his parents for allowance now.

But that doesn’t matter very much because he’s having the time of his life in the unwelcoming shadows of the city, because Gon is someone that can make job hunting seem fun even though the two of them have no employability skills whatsoever. His enthusiasm, like everything else about him, is infectious.

Even so, they are kicked out of multiple places for stating their previous work experience (fishing and murder, respectively).

“Fishing?” Killua asks, wrinkling his nose.

Gon looks affronted. “ _Murder_?”

“Guess we’ll have to lie,” Killua sighs, after the fourth hiring company rejects them on the spot for their unwavering honesty. Gon looks scandalized at the thought, as if he hasn’t told a lie in his entire life. He probably hasn’t.

“Dad says Yorknew City is full of opportunities,” he declares. “We just haven’t found the right one yet.”

“Yeah, right.”

Maybe Milluki will take pity on them and wire KIllua some money before the two of them starve on the streets and die. If not pity, then blackmail or bribery also works.

x

Gon isn’t entirely dense, or at least he hopes he isn’t. He may not be very bright, but he’s not a complete _idiot_. He knows it wasn’t a coincidence when Killua sat next to him on the train heading to the heart of the city, and he could taste the stench of killer intent from a mile away.

But does that change anything? Not in the slightest!

Killua is the kind of person Gon wanted to meet when he set out for the mainland and besides, it’s not like Killua’s killed him yet, right? He waited too long and now they are friends. Gon even finds him a job at a small, out of the way teahouse, which offers the two of them room and board in exchange for labour. They both left home and now they have to support themselves somehow, so Gon’s gotta be there to support Killua because that’s what friends are for.

But a customer with long black hair and blank eyes is hovering in the doorway of the teashop, an odd-looking man that kind of looks like Killua if you squint and suck in your cheeks as hard as you can. Beside Gon, Killua is stiff and taut, a wild animal with hackles raised and teeth bared even though his expression does not change in the slightest.

The customer _smells_ like Killua. Dangerous. Bloodlust. The air currents swirling around him scream at Gon to run but he continues to pour tea very, _very_ carefully.

“Kil,” the man says, and his voice grates on Gon’s ears.

“Let’s take this outside,” comes Killua’s voice, tense and cold.

The man stares back, unblinking. “Kil, why is your target still –”

“Let’s take this _outside_ ,” Killua repeats forcefully, and he shoves past Gon toward the man, radiating displeasure and anger and something that smells like fear. The tea Gon is holding sloshes a little, but does not spill. Gon sets the cup down as Killua disappears around the doorway, with a muttered,

“Be right back.”

Which means, and Gon brightens at the thought, Killua will certainly be right back.

x

Killua doesn’t come right back. He doesn’t think he can face Gon like this, even after he’s stopped shaking and he realizes he’s missed half his shift and the sun’s already going down. He’s never told Gon a single lie, nor the truth for that matter, but somehow it feels like it’s worse like this. Illumi’s timing, as usual, is impeccably bad. He’ll come clean eventually, once he works up the courage to tell Gon, _by the way I was sent to assassinate you but I decided you were cool so we became friends instead_.

A little bit late now, isn’t it?

Before it gets dark, Gon comes to collect him, and Killua isn’t surprised because he hasn’t moved from where Illumi left him and it’s not too far from the teahouse. Excuses and half-eaten lies and ways to deflect run through Killua’s mind like the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He barely hears what Gon says, and it takes him a minute to realize it’s not something dire like, _I trusted you, how could you betray me?_ It’s something dumb, because of course it is.

“Will you show me that _suuuuuuper_ cool technique now, or is it still a secret?”

Killua doesn’t blink.

Gon gasps a little, clapping a hand to his mouth as if coming to an earth-shattering realization. “Oh, that’s why I thought you guys were kind of similar! That guy who came by is your older brother!”

“Duh,” Killua says, and he’s recovered a little from his initial shock. “I wouldn’t let anyone else call me _Kil_ unless they wanted to die.”

“Kil!” Gon says immediately, undeterred by Killua’s glare.

“You wanna die?”

“No, but I want to see that technique!”

**Author's Note:**

> written to apply to a thing and explore stronger character voice, and also a weird AU that I got invested in for no reason at all haha


End file.
